1. Technical Field
The present invention is related to the establishment and characterization of a new, cultured, human plasma cell myeloma line. More particularly, the present invention is related to a unique human plasma cell line, designated NCI-H929, having rearranged in its genome the alpha and kappa genes and which is capable of synthesizing and secreting high amounts of IgAk (&gt;80 .mu./10.sup.6 cells/24 hr), said cell line also having a rearranged cellular c-myc proto-oncogene.
2. State of the Art
Despite intense efforts in many laboratories during the past twenty years, plasma cell (PC) myelomas and leukemias have been one of the most difficult of human malignancies to establish in continuous culture (Karpas et al., Science 216:997, 1982). While a modest number of Holman & Stern, Chartered Folio P49604 `plasmacytoid` cell lines have been reported, the vast majority of these are lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs), which result from in vitro transformation of non-malignant B cells by Epstein-Barr virus (Nilsson et al., Advan. Cancer Res. 37:319, 1982). In contrast, many mouse plasmacytoma and human Burkitt lymphoma (BL) lines exist (Marcu et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80:523, 1983; Taub et al., Cell 36:339, 1984). In both of these otherwise very different B cell tumors, specific reciprocal translocations occur which bring the cellular myc proto-oncogene (c-myc gene) and an immunoglobulin (Ig) gene segment into the same chromosomal region. These events result in the preferential transcription, and perhaps, abnormal regulation of the translocated c-myc gene. While similar molecular events probably occur in rat PC tumors (Sumegi et al., Nature 306:497, 1983), human myelomas have not been associated with rearrangement or inappropriate transcription of c-myc, nor with structural abnormalities of its chromosomal location (8q24) (Philip, Cytogenet 2:79, 1980).